Emergency safe haven

ABSTRACT

An emergency safe haven for use in hazardous environments is claimed. The safe have has a compacted and expanded shape. When expanded, the safe haven provides a volume for crewmembers to occupy in times of emergency. The safe haven has an air supply for providing the occupant with breathable air.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to an emergency safe haven for use in terrestrialand space environments.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Dangerous environmental conditions can arise from a variety of sources.Perhaps the most familiar are situations involving military conflictwhere chemical agents, smoke, radioactive particles, and biologicalpathogens are deliberately released into the atmosphere to injurepeople.

In response to this threat, a number of countermeasures have beendeveloped to protect people from expose to these dangerous conditions.Most notably, there are contamination resistant suits that can be worn,which allows a person a level of mobility combined with a degree ofsafety from expose to dangerous elements.

While these suits have proven to be invaluable, the suits do have somedrawbacks. A person needs time put on an environmental protective suit.Depending on the type of suit, dressing can take a substantial amount oftime. Should a person be in a battlefield environment, there might notbe enough time before being lethal exposure. Also, a self-contained suithas a limited supply of oxygen and no way to allow a person to eat ordrink. This severely restricts the applicability to the suit to ashort-term application. Furthermore, in many situations, mobility is notan issue and using a suit is more restrictive than necessary.

Military situations are not the only way the release of an airbornecontaminant can threaten human life. The release could be accidental.This can happen, for example, in laboratory settings and transportationaccidents resulting from train/truck wrecks containing hazardousmaterials. In these situations, there is usually not enough time for aperson to use a protective suit.

While these situations focus on the terrestrial release of contaminants,life-threatening situations can occur beyond Earth.

Manned spacecraft are designed to provide a variety of life supportfeatures that are not endemic to extra-terrestrial environments known todate. These features include providing, among other things, a source ofoxygen, water, food and environmental controls, e.g. temperature andpressure.

These artificial environments can support human life, but there arerisks associated with a spacecraft in an extra-terrestrial environment.For example, a spacecraft's hull can be breached in a number of ways.Bombardment by space debris traveling at high velocities, normal wearfrom exposure to high levels of radiation, and accidents occurring fromwithin the spacecraft are but a few such examples.

When the integrity of a spacecraft's hull is compromised, air can escapefrom the craft. This loss of air creates a potentially life threateningsituation for the crew. One way to address this problem is for the crewto fix the leak. However, there could be situations where the leak isnot easily located or repaired. In such circumstances, the crew couldput on a space suit.

The downside to this procedure is that it typically takes a long time toget suited up and conventional space suits have a limited air supply anda crewmember cannot eat from within a space suit. Furthermore, if theemergency requires each crewmember to use a suit, there may not beenough room for everyone in a suit to move around or even wear a suit inthe confines of a spacecraft.

If the rate of air loss is too great, or a repair is not practical, thenthe crew needs an alternative to a space suit.

Whether on Earth or extra-terrestrially, there arise times of emergencywhere every second counts and a person must resort to a habitableenvironment. In those times of emergency, what is needed is a safe haventhat is rapidly deployable, can accommodate a number of people, andprovides an air supply for more than a short period of time.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An emergency safe haven is claimed. The emergency safe haven has a crewcompartment and an anteroom connected to one another, each having aclosure and each having a compacted shape and an expanded shape. Whenthe crew compartment and anteroom is in an expanded shape, a crewmembercan enter the anteroom through the anteroom closure and move into thecrew compartment through the crew compartment closure. An air supplyprovides a breathable atmosphere for the inhabitants of the crewcompartment and the anteroom.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional side view of the emergency safe have in acompacted shape;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional side view of the emergency safe haven in anexpanded shape;

FIG. 3 is cross-sectional view of the outer shell and the inner shell;

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a closure;

FIG. 5 is a frontal view of a closure; and

FIG. 6 is a frontal view of a closure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention may best be understood by reference to thefollowing description taken in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawings.

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of an emergency safe haven 10 in acompacted shape. There is an anteroom 12 having an interior volume 14and a crew compartment 16 that also has an interior volume 16. Alsopresent is a pressurized gas reservoir 20, an air supply 22, a foodsource 24, and a water source 26.

Turning to FIG. 2, the emergency safe haven 10 is in an expanded shape.A gas reservoir valve 21 is connected between the pressurized gasreservoir 20 and to the internal volumes 14 and 16. Upon activation ofthe gas reservoir valve 21, gas is released from the pressurized gasreservoir 20 into the internal volumes 14 and 16. Activation of thevalve 21 may be done by any number of well-known means including anelectrical switch or a manual lever.

In one embodiment, the valve 21 only allows gas to enter the volumes 14and 16 if the pressure in either volume falls below a specified amount.In conjunction with this embodiment, a one-way valve 23 allows gas toenter into the anteroom volume 14 from the crew compartment volume 16.Thus, when a crewmember enters the anteroom, the pressure in theanteroom would drop and activate the valve 23 that in turn reduces thepressure in the crew compartment and then the valve 21 would allow gasto enter the crew compartment to replenish the escaped gas. This is thepreferred embodiment.

In another embodiment, the valve 21 would be connected to the crewcompartment and also linked to the anteroom by a tube 25. Gas would beallowed to flow from the pressurized gas reservoir 20 to either the crewcompartment or the anteroom to compensate for a drop in pressure.

With the gas valve 21 activated, the anteroom 12 and the crewcompartment 16 inflate to the expanded state. During the inflation, theanteroom closure 30 and the crew compartment closure 32 are in theclosed position. FIG. 2 identifies the closures 30 and 32 as being openonly to identify the location of the closures relative to the safe haven10.

The air supply 22 can take a number of forms. In one embodiment, the airsupply 22 can be a system that re-circulates and purifies the air withinthe safe haven. In the preferred embodiment, the air supply 22 can be acompressed air source. The air within the safe haven would be expelledout of the safe haven as the Oxygen was depleted and more air would beprovided by the compressed air source. In another embodiment, airexternal to the safe haven could be filtered and provided to theoccupants and the depleted air would then be vented from the safe haven.Air flowing to and from the safe have would be moved through a valve 28.

FIG. 3 identifies the fabric outer shell 34 and the air barrier innershell 36 that is used to house the crew compartment and the anteroom.The air barrier inner shell 36 provides a substantially airtightbarrier. The fabric outer shell 34 transfers the pressure load on theair barrier 36 and provides a measure of protection against externaldamage to the air barrier. The material of the outer shell 34 can bechosen to provide a level of protection against corrosive chemicals. Thematerial for the outer shell 34 can also be chosen to reducecontamination to the occupants of the safe haven by radioactivesubstances.

In an extraterrestrial environment, the fabric outer shell can be a highperformance fiber such as Vectran®, which is the preferred embodiment.The air barrier inner shell 36 is made of a low permeability material.In the preferred embodiment, for an extraterrestrial application, Cepac®HD-200 is the preferred material.

Depending upon the application, for example on Earth, a thicker and morerugged flooring material may be used to protect the inner shell 36. Inthis environment the preferred coating material would be a layer ofpolyurethane.

Referring to FIG. 4, the anteroom closure 38 is displayed in an openposition. The closure 38 can be secured in place by the use ofattachment means such as a zipper, snaps, slide fasteners, Velcro®, or asemi-adhesive material. In the preferred embodiment, a zipper is usedaround the closure's periphery 40.

Once closed, the anteroom closure 38 covers the access port in asubstantially airtight manner by a variety of means that preventcontamination from entering the anteroom through any openings on theclosure's periphery 40. In one embodiment, a flap 42 can be released tocover the closure and the periphery 40. In FIG. 5, the closure is shownin the closed position. The flap 42 covers the closure 38. The edge ofthe flap 42 has an adhesive strip that secures the flap to the insidesurface of the anteroom 46. This adhesion provides a substantiallyairtight barrier between the flap 42 and the surface of the anteroom 46thereby reducing the chance of contaminants entering the anteroom fromthe closure periphery.

In FIG. 6, an alternate method for providing a substantially airtightbarrier is presented. A strip 48 is attached to the anteroom surface 46such that a portion of the strip overlaps the periphery of the closure40. The overlapping portion of the strip has an adhesive surface thatfaces the anteroom surface 46. When the closure is in the closedposition, the adhesive surface of the strip is placed into contact withthe anteroom surface 46. This provides a substantially airtight barrier.Such an arrangement is the preferred embodiment.

The adhesive is not so strong as to be a permanent adhesive. Rather, itis strong enough to secure the flap or strip to the surface of theanteroom and yet can be removed and reapplied without significant lossof adhesive power.

The closure for the crew compartment operates in the same fashion asexplained for the anteroom.

Inflation can be accomplished by electrical or mechanical activation ofthe valve 21 of FIG. 2. Once inflated, a crewmember can gain access tothe anteroom volume 14 of FIG. 2 by opening the anteroom closure 30 andmoving into the volume 14. The closure 30 is closed and madesubstantially airtight by the means identified in FIGS. 5 and 6 asdiscussed above. The crewmember can open the crew compartment closure 32and move into the crew compartment volume 16. Then crew compartmentclosure 32 is then closed and made substantially airtight in the sameway as for the anteroom closure. Once inside of the crew compartmentvolume 16, the occupant can activate the air supply by now meansincluding electrical or mechanical activation.

A novel emergency safe haven has thus been described. It is important tonote that many configurations can be constructed from the ideaspresented. Thus, nothing in the specification should be construed tolimit the scope of the claims.

1. An emergency safe haven comprising: a crew compartment having aninternal volume, a compacted shape, an expanded shape, and a crewcompartment closure cooperating with a crew compartment access port; thecrew compartment closure having an open position and a closed positionand the closed position covering the access port in a substantiallyairtight manner; an anteroom having an internal volume, a compactedshape, an expanded shape, and an anteroom closure cooperating with ananteroom access port; the anteroom closure having an open position and aclosed position and the closed position covering the access port in asubstantially airtight manner; the crew compartment being fixedlyattached with the anteroom; an air supply; the crew compartment andanteroom being transitioned from an initially compacted shape to anexpanded shape and in the expanded shape a crew member gains access tothe anteroom internal volume through the anteroom access port when theanteroom closure is in the open position and a crew member gains accessto the crew compartment internal volume from the anteroom through thecrew compartment access port when the crew compartment closure is in theopen position; and the air supply providing air for the crew members inthe anteroom and the crew compartment when the anteroom and the crewcompartment are in the expanded shape.
 2. An emergency safe haven as inclaim 1 wherein the crew compartment further comprises; a fabric outershell; and an air barrier inner shell.
 3. An emergency safe haven as inclaim 1 wherein the anteroom further comprises; a fabric outer shell;and an air barrier inner shell.
 4. An emergency safe haven as in claim 1further comprising; a pressurized gas reservoir; a gas reservoir valve;and the pressurized gas reservoir being connected to the gas reservoirvalve and the pressurized gas reservoir valve communicating with thecrew compartment and the anteroom such that the activation of the gasreservoir valve releases gas from the pressurized gas reservoir andinflates the crew compartment and the anteroom from the compacted shapeto the expanded shape.
 5. An emergency safe haven as in claim 1 furthercomprising a food source.
 6. An emergency safe haven as in claim 1further comprising a water source.
 7. An emergency safe havencomprising: a crew compartment having a compacted shape and an expandedshape and the crew compartment comprising; i) a fabric outer shell; ii)an air barrier inner shell; iii) an internal volume formed by the airbarrier inner shell; iv) a crew compartment access port extendingthrough the air barrier inner shell and the fabric outer shell; v) acrew compartment closure having an open position and a closed positionand the closed position covering the access port in a substantiallyairtight manner; an anteroom having a compacted shape and an expandedshape and the anteroom comprising; i) a fabric outer shell; ii) an airbarrier inner shell; iii) an internal volume formed by the air barrierinner shell; iv) an anteroom access port extending through the airbarrier inner shell and the fabric outer shell; v) an anteroom closurehaving an open position and a closed position and the closed positioncovering the access port in a substantially airtight manner; the crewcompartment being fixedly attached to the anteroom; a pressurized gasreservoir; a gas reservoir valve; an air supply; the pressurized gasreservoir being connected to the gas reservoir valve and the pressurizedgas reservoir valve communicating with the crew compartment and theanteroom such that the activation of the gas reservoir valve releasesgas from the pressurized gas reservoir and inflates the crew compartmentand the anteroom from the compacted shape to the expanded shape; in theexpanded shape, a crew member gaining access to the internal volume ofthe anteroom through the anteroom access port with the anteroom closurein the open position and thereafter the anteroom closure is transitionedto the closed position; the crew member gaining access to the internalvolume of the crew compartment from the anteroom by moving through thecrew compartment access port with the crew compartment closure in theopen position and thereafter the crew compartment closure istransitioned to the closed position; and the air supply providing airfor occupants of the crew compartment and the air supply providingpressure such that the pressure in the anteroom and the crew compartmentis substantially at the same pressure when the closures are in theclosed position.
 8. A method for using an emergency safe havencomprising the steps of: inflating a crew compartment and an anteroom;accessing the anteroom through a closure; accessing the crew compartmentfrom the anteroom through a closure; and activating an air supply forproviding air to the anteroom and the crew compartment.
 9. An emergencysafe haven comprising: a crew compartment having a compacted shape, anexpanded shape, and a substantially airtight crew compartment closure;an anteroom having a compacted shape, an expanded shape, and asubstantially airtight anteroom closure; the crew compartment beingfixedly attached with the anteroom; an air supply connected to theanteroom and the crew compartment; means for transitioning the crewcompartment and anteroom from an initially compacted shape to anexpanded shape; means for a crewmember gaining access to the anteroomthrough the anteroom closure; means for a crewmember gaining access tothe crew compartment from the anteroom through the crew compartmentclosure; and means for utilizing the air supply for providing air forthe occupants of the anteroom and the crew compartment when the anteroomand the crew compartment are in the expanded shape.
 10. An emergencysafe haven comprising: a crew compartment fixedly attached to ananteroom and the crew compartment and anteroom having a compacted shapeand an expanded shape; means for transitioning the crew compartment andanteroom from a compacted shape to an expanded shape; means for a personto gain access to the anteroom; means for a person to gain access to thecrew compartment from the anteroom; and means for providing air to thecrew compartment and the anteroom.